Hot Deals, Cool Shoppers

By MYCAH PLEASANTLEDGER CORRESPONDENT

Friday

Nov 27, 2009 at 9:18 PM

The shopping whirlwind that is Black Friday kept Polk County retailers spinning. Local shoppers camped out in the cold and then stormed the doors before dawn Friday as part of a yearly ritual continuing despite the lingering recession.

Local shoppers camped out in the cold and then stormed the doors before dawn Friday as part of a yearly ritual continuing despite the lingering recession.

National sales figures weren't expected until today, but national media reports indicated this year's crowds were bigger and buying more than those in 2008.

A survey by the National Retail Federation said up to 134 million people planned to descend on stores Friday through Sunday (up from 128 million a year ago) to take advantage of special deals during the unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

By noon, traffic at Lakeland Square mall was up nearly 30 percent compared with 2008, general manager Gil Bankston said. Crowds were also robust at Lakeside Village in South Lakeland and other local retail stores.

Black Friday, known as the day stores begin to turn a profit on the year, has become as much of a tradition during Thanksgiving week as turkey and stuffing.

Some may call it crazy. After all, being a serious shopper requires someone to roll out of bed at unheard of hours, get bundled up and stand in line in the dark of night. But some people swear by it, pointing to how much money they save on sale items.

Many Polk County stores opened their doors early this morning to swarms of shoppers, braving the cold, armed with fliers, ads and shopping bags.

At Kohl's in South Lakeland, store manager Sue Reynolds estimated there were more than 1,000 waiting when she opened for business.

There were deals in every department, with markdowns in the 50 percent to 60 percent range, with some scoring an even deeper discount. Popular items included a digital camera for $59.99, marked down from $129.99, and accent bracelets for $17.99, down from $80 any other day.

Debbie Wiggins and Carla Ball made the trek to Lakeland from Avon Park to partake in the deals at Kohl's, which opened at 4 a.m. When they arrived just before 2 a.m., a line was already forming. Their mission: Find toys and games for their children.

"We strive to be the first ones," said Wiggins. "It's fun."

Nationally retailers expanded their hours and offered deep discounts on everything from toys to TVs in hopes of getting consumers, many of whom are worried about high unemployment and tight credit, to open their wallets.

A number of stores, including Walmart and many Old Navy locations, opened on Thanksgiving, hoping to make the most of the extra hours. Toys "R" Us opened most of its stores just after midnight Friday.

At Kohls in Lakeland, Kami Boyd, arrived at 2:45 a.m. She scored big on presents for her children, getting discounts of more than 50 percent on items like a Leap Frog Reader.

Bryan French also found big discounts on gifts at the store, spending a mere $241, while saving $521.

Not far away, shoppers were lined up at Belk department store, eager to receive free gift cards going to the first 250 shoppers. Those first customers were randomly given cards ranging from $5 to $1,000.

The store opened at 4 a.m., and the gift cards were gone in 15 minutes.

Toys "R" Us in North Lakeland opened at midnight. A store employee said it was packed and remained so through the morning. Lines extended to the Red Lobster across the street.

One of this year's must-have toys - the Zhu Zhu hamster - was a hot item, and the toy store sold out. Since October, Toys "R" Us in Lakeland received about 300 calls about the battery-powered pet.

More lines could be found at Lakeland Square mall, where stores like Sears and JC Penney opened at 4 a.m. Other retail stores opened at 5 a.m. The mall officially opened at 6 a.m., but mall manager Gil Bankston said most stores had already opened because of the number of customers there early.

By 8 a.m., 90 percent of the mall's 4,450 spaces were full, he said. That didn't happen until lunchtime last year.

The most popular store, Bankston estimated, was Old Navy, where hundreds of shoppers lined up at 4:45 a.m.

By 10:30 a.m., Bankston had already concluded this Black Friday was a huge success.

"It hasn't been this busy in the three years that I've been here," he said. "It shows that people are more confident in the economy and the way things are heading."

Bankston, who also manages Eagle Ridge Mall, said that East Polk center did just as well Friday.

At Best Buy in North Lakeland, customers began forming a line on Tuesday.

This year's hot items there included Blu-Ray players, Apple's iPod Touch and Sony's E-Book reader, said Kevin Smith, Best Buy general manager.

Best Buy customer Steven Hood and about a dozen of his friends got first shot at the deals in the wee hours Friday.

"We've been doing this for five years now," he said.

Hood, who was buying gifts for his family, showed up Tuesday and switched off holding the first-person-in-the-door position with other people in his group. They stayed in a tent pitched near the entrance.

Hood planned to save $600 on the gifts for his family.

Smith estimated this year's crowd was about 30 percent bigger than last year's. He said people in line had been well behaved.

One of Best Buy's competitors, Office Depot, opened its doors at 6 a.m. with more than 100 people in line. Office Depot manager Teresa Hill said technology items were the hottest, with deals like an HP Laptop with a $250 discount being especially popular.

"I think we did fabulous," Hill said late Friday morning. "We're still busy. Our computer isle is full, and we've sold out of all our goodies."

After suffering the worst sales decline in several decades last holiday season, the good news this year is that the retail industry is heading into the Christmas selling period armed with lean inventories and more practical goods on their shelves, items they hope will reflect shoppers' new psyche.

Still, with unemployment at 10.2 percent, many analysts expect total holiday sales will be at best about even from a year ago.

Despite the problems, many national retailers showed optimism in early fall as shoppers spent a little more, but stores say they've seen a sales slowdown since Halloween, putting merchants more on edge.

[ Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. MyCah Pleasant can be reached at mycah.pleasant@theledger.com or 802-7550. ]

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